Colorado River

The freshwater team at National Geographic believes the principle of motivated individual action can help to restore the flow of the Colorado River. Together with the Bonneville Environment Foundation and Participant Media, National Geographic has created the “Change the Course” campaign.

Water managers are testing the effectiveness of temporary, voluntary measures that could be used to keep the water level in Lake Powell above what is needed to maintain power production at the Glen Canyon Dam. The Utah Division of Water Resources and the Upper Colorado River Commission are overseeing the “Pilot System Water Conservation Program,” which has been extend

It's 118 at Lake Mead on a July afternoon, but the thermometer on the boat’s depth finder says the lake is a cool 67 degrees. Naturally, you jump in. It tastes earthy and mossy, if mossy can be a taste, and ultimately it’s what 30 million people survive on. This is the stuff and place thousands of professionals are focused on.

To reach the floating docks at Temple Bar Marina on Lake Mead, you have to cross a 200-yard-long gangway stretching across cracked mud flats that used to be the lake bottom. Mike Reisbig moored his boat there on an August afternoon.

The harsh drought currently gripping California may appear trivial in the future as new research shows that the south-west US faces the looming threat of “megadroughts” that last for decades. California is in its sixth year of drought, which was barely dented by rains brought by the El Niño climate event and sparked a range of water restrictions in th

Atop Hoover Dam on a 115-degree July afternoon, tourists line up to suck cold water from fountains and crowd into the air-conditioned cafe and visitors’ center. Transpose both those actions to the 30 million people who depend upon that blue-green water behind the dam. That’s water for a jogger in Santa Monica. Water for an oleander hedge in Phoenix.